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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,065 posts.
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Japanese Toilets: The Future Called 30 Years Ago
Japan circa 2006 I stare at the strange looking symbols with trepidation. Fear mixed with equal doses of excitement, is this the time I finally do it? Yes. I gather up the courage and push what I believe to be the start button. There is a whirring noise then nothing, for an excruciating second I think I have made a…
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Arrests of Hong Kong democrats shows why EU must reject China investment
On 6 January 2021, 53 people were arrested in Hong Kong under the National Security Law, including the organisers and candidates in last July’s democratic primaries where over 600,000 Hong Kongers voted for pro-democracy candidates for the upcoming Legislative Council elections. On the morning of 6
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Should AI Be Open?
I. H.G. Wells’ 1914 sci-fi book The World Set Free did a pretty good job predicting nuclear weapons:They did not see it until the atomic bombs burst in their fumbling hands…before the l…
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Vampire Attack Twitter
Here’s a simple way to take over Twitter for way less than $43 billion dollars.
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Quality of drinking water varies significantly by airline
A 2026 Airline Water Study released today by the Center for Food as Medicine and Longevity reveals that the quality of drinking water varies significantly by airline, and many airlines…
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Face retouching settings should be off by default
To provide more control and transparency for selfie filters, we created a guide for respecting personal choices around face retouching.
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The destruction of graduate education in the United States
If and when you emerged from your happiness bubble to read the news, you’ll have seen (at least if you live in the US) that the cruel and reckless tax bill has passed the House of Representat…
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Walled Gardens Can Kill
I'm an Apple ecosystem user, owning an iPhone ever since a past employer got it for me to test our company app some 8 years ago. Over time, as I've upgraded, I'
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UCLA professor refuses to cover for Dan Ariely in issue of data provenance
In one of the more bizarre twists of the Dan Ariely saga, there is a huge issue of provenance in one of Dan Ariely’s studies. The study in question is Dan Ariely’s Ten Commandments study at JMR. The hugely impactful paper has over 3,000 citations but unfortunately failed to replicate in a large-scale systematic…
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Online ID / age verification: the death of online search
Neil note: I’ve published this with the hope that others familiar with what this could entail will give feedback. As such, what you read now might not be the final version. If I make material changes, I’ll indicate them.
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The human only public license
A copyleft software license that restricts AI usage
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I wish people were more public
On sharing more of yourself.
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What is the value of browser diversity?
In May 2019 I attended a talk by Mike Taylor who works on webcompat at Mozilla. Mike told the sordid story of window.event, a non-standard IE invention that was replicated in Konqueror, which showed up in Webkit, which stuck around in Blink, and was now Mike’s problem in Firefox. It was a good story fraught with ups…
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Apple Broke My iPhone, and Their Policies Prevent Them from Fixing It
Hello. I’ve been an otherwise happy iPhone user since 2008. I use my iPhone with an MVNO carrier in the U.S. called Straight Talk, which runs over AT&T’s network. This is my story.
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How Tokyo built its way to abundant housing
Tokyo has rightly been getting some plaudits for housebuilding of late, and this post brings together some stats that illustrate just how impressive its record is. First, some definitions and conte…
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Unblocking User Freedom: the right to use adblockers
Companies increasingly aim to control how users interact with their content online, threatening user freedom. As more companies crack down on browser exten...
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Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps
After roughly five months of appeasing users with new feature after new feature after new feature , the other shoe has finally dropped. Today, Strava sold its segmented soul. At least, if you believe Strava Segments are the soul of what makes Strava, well, Strava.
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Software vendor argues that it has copyright in output of its CAD software
When is the output of a copyright-protected software program itself protected by copyright? This is a case of first impression for any court of appeals which is pending at the Ninth Circuit. The case is Design Data Corporation v. Unigate Enterprise, Inc., 14-16701. On 17 October, 2016, counsels for both parties…
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Meta Deployed AI and It Is Killing Our Agency
Managing millions in Meta ad spend, yet treated like we don't exist. An inside look at how Meta's AI-driven changes are disrupting agencies and advertiser performance.
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Why we need an Open Wireless movement
If you sometimes find yourself needing an open wireless network in order to check your email from a car, a street corner, or a park, you may have noticed that they're getting harder to find. Stories like the one over the weekend about a bunch of police breaking down an innocent man's door because...
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Why Book Corners won't sync contributions back to OpenStreetMap
I wanted Book Corners to contribute newly submitted public bookcases back to OpenStreetMap. After researching the operational and community requirements, I decided not to implement it.
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Hey programmers, we need to talk
This article is now in Russian! Hey guys. Thanks for coming to this meeting on such short notice. There’s coffee in the back. Did somebody spot the token recruiter yet? And show him the door?…
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Field Notes: Highlights from Huawei
Editor’s note: Since we closely follow China and the global nature of tech in general, among other topics related to innovation, here are highlights from a two-hour interview that Ren Zhengfei, the founder and CEO of Huawei (the world’s largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment and second largest…